Gender and intersectional bias in featured biographies on the front page of the Italian edition of Wikipedia, 2014–2024

What is it about?

This study examines gendered and intersectional visibility in all biographical entries featured on the Italian Wikipedia Main Page (2014–2024). Using a dataset of 29,529 biographies linked to Wikidata, analysed through SQL queries, UDC-based occupational grouping and visual analytics, it identifies persistent gender imbalance, strong recency bias and Euro–North American concentration. Women remain underrepresented across periods and professions, while limited sociocultural metadata restricts deeper intersectional analysis. The findings highlight how front-page curation functions as a socio-technical gatekeeping device and offer practical insights for improving diversity and representation on high-visibility digital interfaces.

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